RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 7

RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL

HIROHITO AT WORSHIP

1 LONDON, September 3. The Domei news agency reported that Emperor Hirohito today personally informed his Imperial ancestors of the Japanese defeat. Clad in ceremonial robes, the Emperor worshipped at three sanctuaries in the Palace, attended by the Empress and also a representative of the Dowager Empress, and the Princes Mikasa, Takamatsu, and Higashi-kuni, General Umezu ,and other high officials. A spokesman for the Home Ministry, in a broadcast over Tokio radio, explained the meaning of weapons under j the surrender terms. He said that swords were close to the Japanese souls, but henceforth they would be regarded as objects of ancient art and cutlery. However, the Allies would determine whether hunting rifles and daggers were considered to be weapons. The correspondent of the Associated Press of America at Yokohama says that Japan has begun a new political epoch, with the influence of the militarists wiped out and industrialists and politicians resuming the struggle for power which they shared with the militarists until the early 19305. Some Japanese newspapermen predict a revival of Communism, which was spreading in the early 1920's until the militarists and other groups stamped out the trend. The so-called Democrats propose a monarchial system akin to Britain's but with the Emperor also as spiritual head.